The word "chatbot" suggests a tool that answers questions in natural language, often generically. "AI agent" describes something different: a system able not only to answer but to carry out concrete actions on other systems, check the result and continue accordingly.
The distinguishing feature: tools
An AI agent has access to a set of "tools" — functions it can call to perform real actions: creating a record in a database, working out a value with a precise formula, sending a notification. A traditional chatbot, lacking that capability, can only generate text in response to text.
Why this matters in a business setting
Inside business software the difference produces very different tools: a chatbot explains how to create a quote; an AI agent actually creates one, calling the same functions a person would use from the interface, with the same reliability as a manual action.
The boundary that still matters
Being able to act does not mean unlimited autonomy: a well-designed AI agent performs verifiable actions, often with explicit confirmation before anything irreversible, and stays inside a set of tools defined in advance — it does not invent new capabilities, it only uses the ones it has actually been granted.